Ayre says Liverpool happy with way manager pursuit conducted

Reds managing director Ian Ayre defended the way the club had gone about their search for a replacement for Kenny Dalglish, sacked just over two weeks ago after his team finished eighth in the Premier League, 17 points adrift of the top four.

"There was a process and it was right to have a process to find the right person for the profile we picked," he said.

"Brendan was always at the forefront of that thinking, evidenced by the fact we asked Swansea very early on.

"He was the only person we made an offer to. We got the person we wanted.

"It's fair to say we considered many people because that's what you should do, you try to understand how any individual fits with the profile you have set.

"Roberto (Martinez) was one of the people in that process. We went through that with a lot of people, people that the public were not aware of.

"Some people decided to say they were in the process but they weren't.

"It was all about understanding individuals and matching their skill-sets with the profile.

"Brendan was at the forefront of that and at the outcome of it and that was exactly what we wanted."